Urjo Kareda (February 9, 1944 – December 26, 2001) was an Estonian-born Canadian theatre and music critic, dramaturge and stage director.
His parents fled the Soviet occupation of Estonia in the autumn of 1944, escaping first to Sweden, where Kareda attended schools.
[1] After working as a theatre critic for the Toronto Star in the early 1970s, Kareda was Literary Manager at the Stratford Festival during the tenure of Artistic Director Robin Phillips.
He and a team of three other directors (Martha Henry, Pam Brighton, and Peter Moss) were hired to lead Stratford's 1981 season after Phillips' resignation, but the subsequent dismissal of the team a few months later caused several Stratford veterans to decide to work away from the Festival for some years.
[2] He was artistic director of the Tarragon Theatre of Toronto from 1982 until his death on December 26, 2001, of cancer.